A Casting Director Explains Why Your Audition Isn’t Memorable

On every plane, there’s a safety demonstration performed by the crew, whether recorded or live. In my opinion, this is the most boring performance on the planet.
Actually, let me say, it’s not their performance that’s at fault—it’s the predictability. We know what is going to be said. We know the content and sterile objectivity of the presentation, so no one pays attention.
Across airline safety demos, the script is more or less the same. In auditions—when I watch different actors do their own versions—the script is also exactly the same. And like those airline safety videos that are virtually the same across flights and airlines, so to are auditions.
That’s right: you’re delivering an identical performance to every other auditioning actor.
In effect, an audition is a business pitch for a job. You are attempting to stand out among all the applicants. You are trying to deliver a memorable job interview. We are looking for a specific character. We have certain parameters in our mind of who fits our project.
If your version of the character is steadfastly (and alas, predictably) driven by the page—what I call the writer’s version of the character—then you